DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted a court order that would have given thousands of athletes who dropped out of college after last season an extra year of eligibility, a key ruling that came just eight days before the start of the football season. The lawsuit was filed by players who graduated high school in 2022, whose college eligibility ended last season and who were not included in the NCAA’s controversial new rule that gives most players five years of eligibility starting next season. In district court last month, many of those players were trying to figure out how to return to their old schools to play another year. TCU and North Carolina will play in Dublin next Saturday, one of eight games on major college football’s inaugural schedule. This 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver puts that on hold until the appeal can be heard in full. It could, although not guaranteed, calm the chaos generated by a series of rulings in courts across the country that had paved the way for the return of multi-sport players. The NCAA includes about 1,200 member schools and nearly half a million total athletes. A large part of the case hinges on the idea that, with the fall season approaching, some athletes were trying to regain spots on rosters that had already been secured. The plaintiffs argued that it was a matter of fairness: they should not be restricted from the fifth year (and the accompanying educational and NIL compensation opportunities) to which a player one year younger was entitled. But, the NCAA responded in its legal filing, “justice is in the eyes of the beholder.” “Countless student-athletes already on campuses and schools that built their rosters based on the rules that NCAA members wrote and agreed to follow do not believe it is fair for thousands of previously ineligible athletes to return to competition at the start of the 2026-27 season,” he said. NCAA Chief Legal Officer Scott Bearby sent a memo to schools telling them they would not be subject to NCAA punishment “for any member of the class who was permitted to compete within the scope of Wisne’s court order before the suspension was granted.” This is our AP Top 25 Poll newsletter. You can subscribe below and we’ll email it to you weekly. Sign up for Top 25 Poll Alerts: Receive email alerts for every Top 25 College Football Poll poll release. But, he reiterated, those players are no longer eligible. Among them were defensive linemen Kellan Wyatt and Stephan Daley, both members of Indiana’s national championship team last season. Bearby also acknowledged that the NCAA would continue to defend similar lawsuits the association is losing in state courts across the country, a sign that the NCAA knows Friday’s ruling is no guarantee to end the confusion created because of the new eligibility rule. It is possible, and even likely, that there will be more appeals. Making headlines this week was the return of former Ole Miss starters Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris and Wydett Williams, who won rulings from a state court in Louisiana that gave them another season of eligibility even though they had signed with NFL teams this summer. Basketball teams have more time to figure this out: no team wants a player on the roster who could later be declared ineligible. Gonzaga, for example, recently added Dayton’s Javon Bennett and Florida State’s Chauncey Wiggins, each of whom won eligibility lawsuits in different courts. “Some of us coaches told the NCAA over and over again that if they waited longer to announce this, they probably wouldn’t have this problem,” Zags coach Mark Few said in a recent interview. “So I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t be open to it. Maybe you don’t need it, but if you do…these are good guys.” ___Sign up for Top 25 Poll Alerts here. Visit the Top 25 here and see complete AP college football coverage here.
